Jo's Happy Place
by Pchefbeth
Summary: Another demonstration gone wrong, and Jo's in the crossfire again. What did Parrish's machine make her do this time? Jo/Zane fic post I'll be seeing you.


_Takes place several weeks after I'll be seeing you. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Eureka, I don't own Eureka...and my therapist says that if I say it enough times that I'll start to believe it. _

Jo's Happy Place

Jo Lupo walked up the steps to her porch and reached for the knob to her door. She wouldn't have admitted it to anyone else at the moment but her hands were still shaking from the day that she'd just had. She let herself in and closing the door behind herself, leaned back against it and closed her eyes. She was so thankful that her house had been completed a few days prior and she had been able to move in- this wasn't something that she wanted to have to deal with surrounded by people at over at S.A.R.A.H. She honestly wasn't sure how she would be able to face everyone else in the next few days after what she'd just done.

Dropping her keys on the side table by the door she walked in and sat down on the large sofa, legs giving out beneath her. She felt so drained, emotionally and physically. Most of the day was still pretty hazy, but what she could remember, and with what she'd read from the incident report that would be filed, pieces were starting to come back to her.

The last clear thing that she remembered was earlier that morning when Fargo had asked her to attend a new demonstration that was being prepared for General Mansfield in the NLWPS lab. She would have avoided the lab if Zane had been assigned there, but more recently his computer skills had made him high in demand elsewhere in GD, and Fargo had assured her that he wouldn't be there. She rolled her neck, trying to alleviate the stiffness that she felt. She still hadn't told anyone else what had occurred between her and Zane several weeks prior in the sheriff's office. Zane had confronted her about not being the Jo Lupo that he knew from this timeline, and thanks to her hallucinations he now had proof of an alternate reality- his grandmother's ring. She'd almost gotten away, for the moment anyways, when he decided to prove a point and had kissed her. She'd been so taken aback by the move that she'd allowed it to happen and for a moment, just a moment, she felt like she was back home again. But when she remembered where she was, it had been like being hit with a bucket of cold water, and she had pulled back. She knew what he'd been doing, and he'd proven his point- she defiantly wasn't the Jo Lupo that he knew from this timeline. Thankfully, they had been interrupted by the arrival of Zoe, whose presence had allowed Jo to make a fast get away, and she'd been avoiding Zane ever since, going so far as to monitor him on the security camera's if she needed to leave her office to make sure that she wouldn't run into him. It had been working, until today.

Just thinking about the day made Jo's stomach drop and she put her head in her hands as images replayed in her head, over and over. The demonstration had not gone as expected- again. It was supposed to bolster security personnel with a sense of calm while they worked in the midst of a crisis. Instead of feeling calm however, she and Fargo lost all sense of fear. Fargo began running around hugging everyone asking if they wanted coffee, and ruffling people's hair and kept trying to give Dr. Parrish a noogie. That was bad enough, but Jo didn't have that kind of reaction. _No_, she thought, _she had to go looking for the one thing that she had been afraid of._ She had gone looking for Zane.

She'd known exactly where to find him. It had only been a short while before leaving her office to accompany Fargo that she'd watched him enter Grace's lab in Section 3 to assist her on a new piece of technology. With Dr. Parish and his crew trying to stop Fargo from calling Mansfield and telling him off, she had simply walked out of the room before anyone even noticed that she was missing. She had walked down the hall to the lab with only one thing on her mind.

Somewhere between Section 4 and the lab she had removed her jacket- they had found it lying in the hallway, and apparently she had also taken her hair down from its usual ponytail. Remembering all too clearly she groaned aloud and closed her eyes at the memory.

She had passed Grace exiting the lab, and she hadn't stopped to say anything. She wasn't even sure if she'd pushed past her, or if Grace had tried to stop her. She did remember walking through the doors and seeing Zane glance up, and the look of surprise that crossed his face when he saw her.

"_Well well_," he had said as he stood to face her. "_You done avoiding me yet_?"

She couldn't remember if she had even said anything to him first, but what she did remember was that she had launched herself into his arms, and kissed him. She scoffed as the word just didn't adequately describe it. She'd all but inhaled him.

She rubbed her fingers on her temples pressing in as though she could erase what she'd done. She had so much force going into the kiss that she ended up pushing him back against the computer desk behind him, and he had staggered for a moment as his hands suddenly were filled with a very aroused Head of Security. The real problem Jo thought to herself wasn't just that she had kissed him, but that he had kissed her back. One minute he was simply trying to keep them from toppling over and the next his hands were all over her.

She had wrapped one of her legs around his and was straining upwards, using his shoulders as leverage to rub herself against him; all the while they used tongues, lips and even teeth on one another. The mere thought of it now made her blush in embarrassment.

Zane had caressed her back with one hand, and with the other he cupped the back of her head tilted her head more to deepen the kiss. Their tongues warred with one another, fighting for dominance, and she nipped his lower lip as his hand slid down past her waist and pulled her closer to him.

He had been the one to pull back when he felt her hands go under his shirt and stroke his skin. He'd grabbed her face in his hands and pulled her back so he could look at her, and she'd struggled to continue to kiss him. He had kept saying something about wanting to talk to her, that part wasn't very clear and she remembered him saying something vaguely about Zoe, but all she could remember focusing on was getting to Zane's belt buckle in order to get his pants off.

That was when Zane seemed to realize something was wrong and instead of kissing her, he'd tried to hold her at arm's length and get her to look at him. He kept saying her name, but kissing him had felt so good that she hadn't wanted to stop.

* * *

Zane walked down the steps to GD and headed towards his bike. Jo had managed to slip out of the infirmary before he could talk to her, yet again. He'd spent the last few weeks annoyed that she'd taken to avoiding him. She seemed to always be one step ahead of him when he wanted to come and talk to her and he was more than a little frustrated with her point. There were things that needed to be said, and he was determined that he was going to get a chance to say them. He quickly pulled on his helmet and sped off towards Jo's house where Allison had let slip that she'd gone.

He tightened his hands on the handlebars and tried to concentrate on the road in front of him, but his mind kept wandering back to what had happened that morning. The day hadn't gone at all the way that he'd thought that it would.

He'd been working in the lab with Grace on her memory retrieval device. In truth he had been hoping that he might find some way to convince Jo to use it and show him what he'd been like in the other timeline. Knowing that he'd succeeded elsewhere had just started to give him hope when she began to avoid him.

Grace had just stepped out to grab some lunch with Henry, when the doors reopened and he had looked up and was surprised to see Jo walking towards him, a determined look on her face. He remembered thinking for just a second that it was weird that she wasn't wearing her suit jacket and that he'd never seen her hair down loose around her face; when suddenly Jo reached him, cupped the back of his head, dragged his mouth down to hers and kissed him. His mind went blank and he forgot what he was going to say when he felt her arms wrap around him and hold him close while her tongue swept inside his mouth and began rubbing against his. The blood completely drained from his head and he had gripped her hips like they were a lifeline. Maybe they had been. Her hands were everywhere- touching his face, in his hair, and gripping the back of his shirt as if she were afraid that he might pull away. He'd completely lost all sense of where they were and he'd hungrily kissed her back.

He was brought back to reality when he suddenly felt her hand slip under his shirt and begin to inch it upwards. The movement was so surreal that he pulled back from the kiss just for a moment to see her face, but she'd gripped the back of his head and pulled his mouth back down to hers. He wasn't proud of the fact that it had taken him another moment to remember that something was wrong, he just couldn't think straight when her mouth was on his. He turned his head to break the kiss, but then she began to kiss his neck and she found a sensitive spot that he didn't even know that he had, and began nuzzling him.

He'd finally managed to pull back far enough to get a grip on her shoulders and put her at arm's length so that he could see her face. Her eyes were a little glassy and slightly unfocused which had made his stomach drop as he realized that something was wrong.

* * *

Jo went to into her kitchen, poured a glass of water and forced herself to drink it. She still felt very warm- a side effect of the over-stimulation of her limbic system. "I'll never go to another demonstration as long as I live," she mumbled to herself. She was startled out of her pensive mood by a sudden knock at the door, and she groaned aloud. It had to be Carter. She'd seen the look that he had given her in the infirmary before she had left, and knew that he'd be by to check on her.

She walked over to open the door and stood rooted to the spot in shock as she saw instead that the visitor was Zane. She tried to cover her reaction and act nonchalantly, but her hands still weren't quite steady and she had to grip onto the door.

He stood silently on the porch, and watched as her reactions flew openly across her face. She looked as though she was still pretty shaken up by what had happened that day; she wasn't the only one, but he wasn't going to let her avoid him anymore. He leaned casually against the doorframe and smirked at her. "You going to invite me in," he asked.

"What do you want?"

"You know as well as I do that we need to talk," he told her. "You owe me some answers."

Jo swallowed and pretended to misunderstand. "Dr. Blake said that my reaction today was completely due to the change in dopamine levels, and that I should be back to my old self in –," and faltered as she met his gaze. _Her old self_. He knew all too well that she wasn't her old self at all, and she was in serious trouble.

She cleared her throat and looked away from his face, a blush stealing across her own as she remembered what she'd done the last time he was this close to her.

"Do you really want to have this conversation out here," he asked, his voice quiet but insistent.

Jo looked up into his face silently pleading for him to back off, but Zane wasn't having any of it.

"Let me in Jo," he said as he stepped closer to her.

She tried to stop it, but every time he spoke she would catch herself looking down at his lips, and noticing her where her gaze kept going he smirked and said, "Should I have brought the handcuffs?"

Jo stared at him as a very clear memory hit her of how he and Carter had carried her into the infirmary as she struggled to get free and back into Zane's arms. She'd been telling him how much she wanted him and begging him to come closer and take his shirt off, or she'd rip it off of him, without caring who could hear her. The worst part was when they had to strap her down to the gurney and as Zane had tightened the strap on the wrist closest to him, she'd told him that she'd missed having him handcuff her to the bed.

She'd said things about the time traveling, and how he was different than the other Zane, as she was no longer afraid of telling him anything. Carter had told her later that they had tried to get Zane out of the room, but they couldn't make him budge, and before Allison could tranquilize her, she had said more than enough.

Jo walked woodenly into the living room and sat down on the couch. Zane followed her in, closed the door and followed her into the living room.

He stood; arms crossed over his chest and just watched her.

"So what now," she asked trying and failing to keep the fear out of her voice.

"You're looking at me like I'm some sort of executioner," he said annoyed, as he moved over and leaned against the arm of a nearby chair. "Just what is it that you think I'm going to do Jo?"

She looked up at him with big brown eyes that he'd only lately ever seen sad, and he wished like crazy that she had come looking for him that morning because she had really wanted to, not because she was under some sort of drug like influence.

"Why couldn't you have just let it alone," she asked on a whisper.

"I needed to know. Something felt different between us, and I just…I needed to understand."

"Well you've proven your point once again- you're the smart one."

"My point? What point? That I'm attracted to you? Hell, everyone in this town knows that I've been attracted to you since day one, only to have you constantly turning me down."

"You weren't kissing me because you had feelings for me."

"You seem to think that you know exactly what I was thinking- that's a great trick, did they teach that you how to read minds in the army," he asked sarcastically.

"I know how you think," she said a little heated. "You're a smug, arrogant, horn dog who thinks he can get away with anything-"

"Well you weren't complaining about that today, were you," he interrupted snidely.

"I was under the influence of something," she said as she stood up and faced him, "I didn't have any control over myself," she bit out angrily.

"Well how are you feeling now," he shouted back. "Are all your neurons firing again?"

"I'm fine," she shouted back, matching his volume.

"Good- then there's no excuse this time," he said as he grabbed her by the waist, dragging her towards him until they stood toe to toe. She put her hands up against his chest as if to push him away but he leaned towards her and cupped the back of her head in his hand so that she couldn't back away. He waited a beat, until she met his gaze and then he bent his head, capturing her mouth with his. He pressed her against him, and he played with her tongue rubbing it against his until she started to respond. Her fingers went from pushing him away to clinging to the shirt that he wore, and he smiled against her mouth.

After another heated kiss he lifted his head back far enough that he could look her in the eyes.

She stared at him for a long moment before asking the question that she was the most afraid of. "What do you want?"

He traced his thumb over her cheek lightly, before answering. "I think that I'm being pretty clear about that." He pulled back a little more so that he could study her. "The question is – what do you want?"

Her heart skipped a beat as she heard him utter the words she remembered so well. After a moment's hesitation she said quietly, "I want to stop playing games."

"Meaning what exactly," he countered.

Jo watched as his eyes searched her face for answers, and she could feel the unsteady pounding of his heart through the hand she still had splayed on his chest. He was offering himself to her, she realized, his heart on a plate, just as he had once done before. Inhaling slowly, she rose up on the balls of her feet and whispered simply, "This," and kissed him.

The single kiss set off a chain reaction for them both and they were soon locked in a passionate embrace, as neither wanted to be the first to let the other go. They were so wrapped up in one another that they didn't hear the frequent and then frantic knocking on the door.

Carter walked in a few moments later, worry evident on his face as he called out for Jo to answer him. Hearing a noise in the living room he walked in and immediately averted his eyes as he spotted Zane and Jo making out on the couch.

"Aw no," he said aloud, "what are you doing?"

The couple in question sprang apart and stood, trying to quickly readjust their clothing.

"Allison said that you shouldn't be suffering any more effects from this thing," he said to Jo as he turned around and then glared at Zane. "And you. You're supposed to be keeping an eye on her, not….encouraging her!"

"Well," Zane said with a smirk, "I was watching her and she was watching me."

Carter froze at the feeling of déjà vu and looked back and forth between Zane who seemed amused, and Jo who was blushing red, and unable to look him in the eye.

"You're not still affected, are you," Carter asked Jo slowly.

Jo finally looked up at Carter and shook her head with an embarrassed grin on her face.

Carter just stood there. "Well in that case," he said awkwardly, "I'll just let you, uh, you know, I'll….I'll see you later," and walked back out the front door.

Jo and Zane stood there awkwardly in the wake of the departing sheriff.

"I'd better go. If I don't now then I won't be able to," Zane said as he turned back to Jo and pulled her face towards his for a lingering kiss. He pulled back and waited for her eyes to open. "Dinner," he told her, "tomorrow. 8 o'clock. Don't even think about saying no."

Jo merely nodded.

He smiled and kissed her again quickly on the lips and then again going deeper. He sighed impatiently, as he looked at her. "Ok, really going this time," he said as he reluctantly withdrew his hands from her.

He turned around and walked towards the front door, and turned back to look at her again. With a curious grin he asked, "You really let me handcuff you to the bed?"

Jo merely smiled slowly and leaned back against the nearby wall.

Zane laughed as he opened the door, "I think that I'm finally starting to like this town. See you tomorrow beautiful," and with a wink, he walked out and closed the door behind him.

Jo waited a moment longer and crossed over to the window where she watched him put his helmet on and hop on his bike. She smiled, for what felt like the first time in weeks. She was finally starting to like this town too.

* * *

_I've always thought that the two timelines would end up merging, and I thought a little déjà vu of their "first" kiss a la "Maneater" would be appropriate. Hope you enjoyed._


End file.
